Lake Sun E-Board: Which scandal is most damaging?

QUESTION: It seems this year, the public has had to hear one scandal after another on the national level. Which scandal has the most serious implications for the future of our country and why?

QUESTION: It seems this year, the public has had to hear one scandal after another on the national level. Which scandal has the most serious implications for the future of our country and why?

Benghazi incident shows leadership failure

Benghazi would top my list. Four Americans died needlessly thanks to the inaction of this administration. While there were plenty of signs that additional security was needed, including a mortar attack that left a hole in our embassy there big enough to drive a car through, this administration didn't want to "offend" the Libyan government by beefing up our military or security presence. When the embassy was clearly under attack, not from a random protest over a video no one had seen, but by Muslim militants, this administration chose to ignore the pleas for help from our ambassador, his aides, and the brave military personnel who tried to come to the aid of those folks in spite of being told to stand down. No one knows where our President was while this was going on, even though the attack lasted for hours. No attempt has been made to explain his absence. The Secretary of State was non-existent as well. No one has been allowed to talk to the people who did survive the attack. No one knows who gave the "stand down" order. It appears that no one in this administration did anything to help. But they were ready to mislead the American people into thinking that some video was the reason for the attack when they all knew better within 48 hours of the attack. Then to have Hillary Clinton sit before Congress and make the statement "What difference, at this point, does it make?" when referring to the loss of four American lives shows how pathetic this administration really is. Would you put your life on the line for someone like that? What this country lacks right now is leadership, particularly at the highest level. We've made excuses for this group for far too long.

Dave CreelFour Seasons

Main scandal has yet to be broached

The American public has become a scandalized nation, especially during national election years. The media digs for any little tidbit which it then grows and nurtures into a frenzy and "We the People" expect it. Then there are the two-term presidents. During second terms, the opposition party starts implicating the President and their party in every potential bad light they can imagine and for what? When they get into office the same cycle will occur with them. We have been deluged with scandals this year, Benghazi, NSA, IRS but I believe the scandal which will impact the future of our country has only scratched the surface so far. I'm referring to our military veterans. We have a very large group of veterans from recent military actions who are returning with much altered lives. After the initial actions in Iraq, the VA wasn't prepared for the number of veterans, who after tremendous traumas, were saved by newer and better trauma procedures. The IED's cruel results are visible all over America. As these veterans age, I believe, that medical issues are yet to become known. We have to many veterans with medical concerns from artificial limbs, PTSD and depressions to name a few. These veterans medical issue's will eventually start to compound and currently the VA isn't prepared. Similar to Agent Orange and Vietnam veterans. The fight to gain what was rightfully theirs took years after the conflict was over. Many of those Vietnam veterans, unfortunately, were not around to gain the assistance they needed for doing what their country ask of them. I hope and pray that 40 years from now that we are taking proper care of the veterans, it was earned. A Veteran — whether active duty, discharged, retired or reserve — is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount "up to and including their lives." We must make sure we take care of those whom have allowed us to have the freedoms we enjoy.

Brad MitchellSunrise Beach

No issue greater than the others

Wow, what a target rich environment. For me this has been a hey-day, and has proven everything I despise about this current administration. I thought long and hard about this topic and I don’t think there is any one of these scandals that are worse than the other. What I find though, looking across all of these various questionable activities (beginning, let’s not forget, with our very own Governor who is passing our personal info to the Feds all of us who are applying for CCP’s, and whom I might remind you, has not seen any reaction from our vaunted Attorney General, who vowed to demonstrate his integrity, Chris Koster) is a complete lack of integrity. Take any of these scandals one off. Yeah, we all realize our government cheats us, every chance it gets, ‘Power Corrupts…..’. The IRS is notorious, almost Nazi-like, in the way they conduct business. You just had to know they were screwing someone. If you’ve ever been audited or had to deal with any of them in an official capacity, you’ll know full well what I mean.The State Department, well, they just let American’s die at the Embassy, spread dis-information around hoping they can lay blame elsewhere, get a scape goat (who was later promoted to our Secretary of Defense) and now we hear Hillary wants to be the next President (laughable). I wonder what happened to all the whistle-blowers from the State Department screw up at Benghazi? Hear any more from them? Nope….. Now State’s been caught covering up even more internal investigations on sex and prostitution. American tax dollars at work. They just don’t learn do they.Eric Holder, wow, here’s a true scumbag, gives automatic weapons to Mexican Drug cartels, who in turn use them to kill hundreds of Mexican citizens and even an American Border Guard. Secretly and illegally he taps a large group of journalists phones and emails. Now he wants to go after the NSA whistle-blower and prosecute him. Isn’t that like the pot calling the kettle black? Eric, maybe if you were operating inside the law, a little more often, yourself America would have a little respect for you and your organization of criminals.It’s should be of no surprise that the NSA, our international Spy organization has turned to spying on our own people. Is it any wonder? If they get in any trouble in a foreign country you can bet Hillary and her team of misfits in the State Department will do nothing to help them. The NSA is so bad, in fact, even Hollywood is getting up in arms over the NSA thing. (when the movie stars turn on you, it’s got to be bad!). For what it’s worth, I think Edward Snowden is a hero of the American People and should be rewarded. Instead he’ll likely die at the hands of an NSA agent, working on behalf of the DOJ (Holder) for embarrassing them. It’ll be just like the Benghazi investigation, suddenly it’ll just stop being newsworthy, even for Fox.The net of this is, not one of these government, so-called, leaders has had the integrity, spine, balls, etc. to stand behind what they’ve done. Not one has said “that’s a decision I made and I stand behind it”. Not one. Every one of them has indicated they are so incredibly incompetent that they knew nothing about what their organization was doing. They are fast to toss a scapegoat under the bus just to get the spotlight off them. Our leaders were elected because someone in America believed in them. No one expects them to be perfect. Yet to hear them talk you’re most likely to come away with the thought, “What are our leaders doing? They seem to know nothing about what’s really going on. Are they all totally incompetent?”The answer for this will be clearly demonstrated in time. Watch what happens to these various investigations. The Benghazi whistle blowers, the Secret Service Prostitution thing, the journalists invasion of privacy, etc. have already slide into the murky realm of history . Snowden will just disappear and we’ll never hear from him again. We can only hope he lives, but my money is on the alternative. How is America supposed to trust these slimy bunch of thieves who are running this country into the ground? No integrity, No trust. Where’s the ‘transparency’ Obama promised? Where’s the checks and balances? Where’s the people who campaigned? It’d be nice to see one real leader emerge from this pack and stand up and take credit for a decision that is not politically correct.I’m embarrassed and ashamed to call these people leaders of America.

Scott HaganLake Ozark

Blaming every problem on the White House is wrong

The real scandal is the continued attempts to turn everything into a scandal. The continued shoot first and aim afterwards is distracting congress from the real problems, i.e. jobs, infrastructure repairs, etc.These ongoing attempts to blame any and every glitch in government to some grand conspiracy in the White House is only diminishing the office of the presidency now and for the future.

Francis CarrSunrise Beach

Politicizing of the IRS shows lack of management

The most serious scandal is Obama's politicizing of the IRS. This agency should be totally free of political intervention. Obama is not managing from his office, only politicizing from it. He has never managed anything so we should not be surprised only disappointed. We cannot expect any management actions from POTUS as he is incapable of it.

Hal AnwayLake Ozark

Hard to pick just one issues as most damaging

How do you pick just one ? They all have serious implications: the IRS, the attorney general, the state department, the NSA .Oh and I'm fairly confident there will be more to come. As far as the most serious threat to this country and our constitution, it's the whole Obama administration.Power hungry street thug mentality that seems to have that attitude of we do what we want when we want and if we get caught lie about it or stonewall it and it will go away. I have the feeling I should shut up about now or I'll wind up in data base some where in Utah!

Mike Donovan Camdenton

Poor use personal information most troubling

The IRS targeting individuals and groups is the most ominous. It reveals how easily our personal information can be used inappropriately.The tentacles of this type violation can easily slink into national security where massive volumes of data is already being gathered. And with the IRS involved in Obamacare, health information is up for grabs. With so much questionable testimony, no one held responsible and the growing mistrust of the administration and branches of government, we better start looking over our shoulders. Chicago thug politics has taken over the running our country.

Greg StagebergEldon

‘Patriot’ legislation behind privacy issues

Of the last four previous second term Presidents, only President Reagan barely managed to finish without a major scandal. While I'm concerned about privacy, the so called "Patriot" legislation that was renewed by the legislature and is behind these revelations. How do we balance security V.S. terrorist threats? How can a second term president achieve positive change?

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